Judge orders two men shipped to Japan to face charges, although not in the sort of box they're charged with smuggling Nissan's CEO out of that country in

A federal judge ruled today that Michael Taylor of Harvard and his son Peter Maxwell Taylor should be extradited to Japan to face charges there that they illegally helped the CEO of Nissan - himself charged with violating Japanese law - escape the country, in part by hiding him in a large box they used to get him on a private plane for a flight to Lebanon.

US District Court Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell ruled that an extradition request from the Japanese government provided sufficient proof that the Taylors should at least face trial and that they should be sent there because of an extradition treaty between Japan and the US.

Cabell wrote that the Taylors did not dispute the allegations against them, but said the judge was misinterpreting Japanese law because of the way the law was translated into English; they argued that the actual Japanese said they could only be charged if they helped somebody escape if the person were being held in custody, and that at the time, the CEO, Carlos Ghosn, was awaiting trial at home, not behind bars.

Cabell, however, said it's not his job to explore the subtleties of a foreign law, only to consider whether a request from a foreign government to extradite people was legitimate.

Moreover, where a Japanese court has now twice issued warrants alleging that the respondents’ conduct violated Article 103 [the section of Japanese law at issue], and the Government of Japan has through declarations and case citations presented a reasonable interpretation of Article 103 under which the respondents’ conduct would constitute a violation of that provision, the prevailing view is that the extradition court should defer to the foreign country’s interpretation of its own laws.

Cabell gave the US government a week to get the paperwork in order to fly the Taylors to Japan; in the meantime, the Taylors will remain in federal custody.